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Audio and summary Illinois bill would override local law to allow homeless living in all public parks – Wirepoints
April 14, 2026
27 Comments
If this bill passes, say goodbye to local control over all Illinois parks and expect to see open drug and alcohol use, needles, no sanitation and fire hazards, but no ordinary park users.
Mark Glennon on AM560’s Morning Answer: Chicago Fiscal Crisis Worse Than Pre-Bankruptcy Detroit, HIV Surge and Public Health Threat From Open Borders Goes Unreported
April 10, 2026
2 Comments
Summary and audio linked here.
Mark Glennon on AM560’s Morning Answer: Chicago pension buyout plan mostly shifts debt rather than eliminating it, property tax surge doubles inflation over three decades
April 3, 2026
9 Comments
Chicago’s political leadership is floating a pension buyout program as evidence it is seriously addressing the city’s thirty-six-billion-dollar unfunded pension liability, but Mark Glennon, founder of the Illinois policy research organization Wirepoints, said that the proposal moves debt from one column to another rather than reducing it, and that the broader fiscal picture facing the city continues to deteriorate across every measurable dimension. Audio here.
WBEZ and Chicago Sun-Times falsely blame Texas Gov. Abbott for 2020 to 2024 surge in Chicago Latino HIV, AIDS infections – Wirepoints Quickpoint
March 31, 2026
11 Comments
Expect no retraction or apology. This what they do.
It is typical of the bias exhibited on this site that the ariticle completely omits a crucial fact: that most people retiring from the state workforce today were hired prior to 1986 and thus are not Medicare eligible – because the state was too cheap to pay the 1.45% of salary employer portion of the payroll tax that pays for Medicare. Obviously, because the state, rather than the Feds, must now pay for these folks medical care in retirement, they are currently costing the state a lot of money, but that is because they cost the state less than they… Read more »
The authors’ main point was that coverage is overly generous compared to benchmarks. But as for your point, the state did not contribute a dime towards future medical costs for retirees, which is entirely unfunded, and which reinforces your point, I’d say, that medical liabilities deserves special priority as a matter of policy. All the more reason why we better get on with a rational debt reorg. The longer we wait the deeper the inevitable cuts. There are other choices, as you know full well — people will move, bankruptcy or simple default. They are inevitable because you and everybody… Read more »
Votes have consequences and Voters have accountability for the policies of thier elected representatives. No do-overs no take backs. We all got…what we paid for with our votes over the years of our lives.
I remember Prof. Szakmary telling how the state budget could be ballanced. And listing the hows and wheres of the tax increases that would get the job done. I remember that well.
No, he never told us how the budget could be balanced. Nobody has. Here’s a simple way to see how much it would take. We are currently running $6.2B in the red, even with the harsh cuts now in place. So, add $2B at least to eliminate those cuts and you are up to $8.2B. Then there’s the backlog of $6B of bills. Maybe you could string those vendors out over three years without killing them. That’s another $2B. Now, add what it would take to properly fund the pensions. It would require at least $3B just to keep them… Read more »
A state legislature that didn’t understand the consequences of its laws (or understood the consequences but didn’t care about them) remains unable to print money or to repeal the laws of economics. Likely this ignorance or care-less-ness will result in future pension and health benefit cuts for public employees both active and retired. The question which we are then likely to face (once the cuts actually become reality) is whether these public servants will accept the consequences and tighten their belts or will they instead move to disrupting public order and safety and exacerbate the economic disruption they have already… Read more »
That issue about whether they will cause disruption is huge and scary. We’ve had “blue flu” in the police force before over comparatively minor matters. What happens when the realize just how bad the situation really is and pension payments are slashed? The police fund is only about 25% funded now and rapidly sinking.
Civil order is very important to us all. Quality Civil servants, on the other hand, apparently arround here, are not. Unless they are apparently willing to accept much less in pay, then thier fathers who, worked before them. Come work for us- do the same job as your father- for far less pay and benifits. Thats gonna bring in some really good servants to maintain order ya think? If they can accept a further weakening of the middle class. If they can accept continuing downward pressure on thier wages and benifits…then they are the kind of civil servants we like.… Read more »
Then besides the wage and benifit cut….ya wonder if ya whack their earned and CONSTITUTIONALLY PROMISED AND PROTECTED PENSIONS….ya actually steal from the police themselves…and ya really expect someone to put thier life on the line and provide the same level of protection to the same society that stole from what was promised. Funny and strange thing is I know personally several very proffesional officers who would do so…but many I suspect would not.
Theft is the “taking” of property. Breach of contract is not theft. Contracts are breached every day when one of the parties to the contract is unable to perform what it promised. If that party is broke, then the creditor does not collect the full amount. Careless use of words that have settled meanings is simply a strategem of a debater who is unable to make his point through facts and rational argument. Before this is over (and it WILL end badly) the partisans of good sense will be called nazis, racists and a lot of other names. Public employees… Read more »
Well said J.A.! There is way too much hyperbole used by many of us on this sight me included. A concession I might be alone making…but there it is. Pension Theft is a loaded term used mostly by those on the left. It doesnt help the conversationI could have used a better termno doubt. Forgive me as the context of the term theft was how a cop would feel who is asked to work for a society that demands they work at wages and benifits than thier father’s did, then gets there pension wacked, then is asked to tend to… Read more »
I’ve often wondered if it can be blamed on us lawyers who have been taught to believe that the adversary system is a time-honored method of arriving at truth or justice. Thomas Jefferson and John Adams spent quite a few years calling each other names before resuming cordial communications … with Abagail’s encouragement. One understands that financial and health security are among the core concerns of individuals, particularly those who provided long service in reliance on that security. No thoughtful person should be surprised when anger results from a credible challenge to that security. Insofar as all roads seem to… Read more »
Wait, wait. “Public funds are finite resources”?
To clarify: The public funds of Illinois and its political subdivisions are finite. Perhaps not so with the federal government and its power to issue currency. “Funds” connotes legal tender one can spend — which the credit markets often have something to say about. Pension funds are even more finite, as we are learning. Fred Klonsky “just looks at the data” but that’s a data point that seems to escape his notice. “Wait Wait …” is one of Chicago’s better exports when it comes to public radio and it’s nice to know (on a weekly basis) that folks there haven’t… Read more »
Well I agree in theory.
Problem is our politicians on all sides created(not Rauner) and made such a horrific mess …who else but the laywers to “clean” it up? Who?
Btw. Your eloquence demonstrated in paragraph 2, one understands…was quite a contrast to the discriptive language of taking foods out of mouths ;allthewhile, arrieving at the same destination.
Where’s the concern for the private sector middle class? Use coupons? Don’t care about those factory workers then. Did you pay full list for your house? Don’t care about those local real estate agents. Pay full MSRP for your car and major appliances? If not, you don’t care about your local merchants, mechanics, factory laborers, and town services that rely on that sales tax revenue. And I certainly hope those are American products. Public sector worker tipping less than 25%? My issue is that public sector folks want special treatment for themselves then turn around and do the opposite when… Read more »
Not to mention that all of those unaffordable benefits are constitutionally protected. And reductions in resources are contractually protected, prevailing wage, inability to fire anyone, etc. Either you keep increasing the total percentage of taxpayer money going to these benefits until the people notice. Or you tax the crap out of people until they notice. Or you wait till the bond market cuts us off until people notice. Most residents are still clueless about how money flows in Illinois. There is a lot of pent up potential for reform once the masses get educated.